


Changes

by Lindenharp



Series: Changes!verse [3]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-11
Updated: 2010-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 04:49:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lindenharp/pseuds/Lindenharp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something's changed on board the TARDIS, but Rose isn't sure what it is, or how it happened. Features a developing Doctor/Rose/Jack relationship -- nothing sexually explicit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The trouble starts _after_ the happy ending.

Xoralia is a beautiful green world, inhabited by peaceful farmers whose technology is equivalent to early medieval Europe. The Xoralians would have no chance against aggressive, star-travelling warriors -- except that the TARDIS materialises in the tiny village of Skagada on the morning of the G'nadun invasion.

The invasion force is sent packing with a dazzling combination of technology, ingenuity, and agility. Jack, as decoy, leads the first landing party on a lively chase through the woods, where their heavy armour puts them at a disadvantage. One by one, they fall into the hidden pit-traps that the natives dig to catch the predators that stalk their cattle. The Doctor and Rose are "captured" while trying to sneak aboard the transport shuttle, and are promptly escorted up to the G'nadun star cruiser.

While the Doctor is being interrogated by the Task-Force Commander, Rose pulls herself up into the ventilation system, crawling through what feels like miles of duct-work before finding the right spot to leave the device that the Doctor hastily assembled. She retraces her path and drops from the ceiling into the Commander's office just as the Doctor is winding up his scathing remarks about moronic gorillas in space suits. She stands beside him, only slightly winded, a grin spreading across her dust-smudged face, while the Doctor announces that the G'nadun weapons systems have all been nullified. "You lot had better clear out an' head home quick as you can, before all the barracudas notice that the shark has lost his big sharp teeth." He turns to Rose, looking her up and down. "Time to go, Miss Rose Tyler. You need a shower."

The shuttle lands them out of sight of the village, by the edge of the woods. There they find Jack, leaning casually against a tree, whistling "We'll Meet Again". Together, they watch with satisfaction as the trapped G'nadun warriors are hauled out of pits by their jeering comrades and loaded onto the shuttle. By the time they walk back to the village, Jack's wrist-comp reports that the G'nadun ship is leaving Xoralian orbit.

Jack waggles his fingers in a vaguely skyward direction. "Goodbye!" he says in a syrupy-sweet falsetto.

"Good riddance," the Doctor growls.

"Good job!" Rose exults, and raises both hands so that she can high-five her two companions.

As soon as they convince the Xoralians that the invaders are truly gone, the trio slip into the TARDIS. It's the Doctor's intention to vanish promptly into the Vortex, but the TARDIS's erratic mechanisms nobble that plan. The gravitic anomalyser is acting up again. The Doctor and Jack crawl under the console, tools in hand. Rose heads for the shower.

Late the following morning, Rose walks into the control room, clean and well-rested. The Doctor, still beneath the console, is neither of those things. He sticks his head out just long enough to refuse a cup of tea, and to inform Rose that, if she is going to be so annoyingly cheerful, she can bloody well do it somewhere else. It is, Rose decides, a good time to go outside and get a bit of fresh air.

Less than ten minutes later, Jack joins her. He has been ejected for being "a ham-fisted idiot who doesn't know a spanner from a sparrow". Jack slips into a decent imitation of the Doctor's northern accent as he quotes this remark, his spirits unbruised by the slurs on his intelligence and technical competence. "When I left, he was muttering something that the TARDIS wouldn't translate," Jack reports, "but I'm pretty sure it wasn't love poetry."

Rose rolls her eyes. She's seen that mood before. "Let's go for a walk, explore a bit. He'll be feeling better by the time we get back."

"Rose Tyler! What d'ya think you were doin', you stupid little ape?"

"I don't see what's so wrong," Rose protests. "S'only a bunch of flowers."

"It was an _offering_, Rose -- a thank-offering. By accepting it from her, you might jus' as well have said, 'Pleased to meet ya, an' by the way, I'm a goddess.'"

"She was just a little girl! We saved her village, and she wanted to say thanks, and she picked some flowers. Little girls do that sort of thing."

"Yeah, an' that might have been all right, 'cept when her mum came around with a basket of fruit, Captain Charming jus' _had_ to take one, and eat it right there in front of her."

Jack gives the Doctor his best "who, me?" smile. "It would've been rude not to. C'mon, Doc -- there was no way that I could've known that fruit was from a tree in the sacred garden of their shrine."

"An' then," the Doctor continues, as if Jack hasn't said a word, "you told her you'd bring the rest back to share with your friend. Now they think that we're _all_ gods."

Jack grins. "I _have_ been called divine more than once." The Doctor shoots him a look that would send a lesser man fleeing for his life.

"I still don't see where the harm is," Rose repeats. "We're only gonna be here for a few days, 'til you get the gravitic thingummy fixed, Doctor. An' besides, we are, sort of." At the sight of the Doctor's raised brow, she explains. "I mean, they don't even know about electricity. We're aliens with technology they can't understand, an' we saved their planet. Compared to them, we prob'ly do seem like gods."

Jack waits to hear what the Doctor's comeback will be. He knows what a Time Agency instructor would say to any cadet foolish enough to express that thought. The Doctor will be much gentler with Rose.

"S'pose you've got a point," the Doctor says mildly.

"I do?"

"Yeah. So, you gonna start worshippin' me?"

Jack blinks. There is not even a trace of a smile on the Time Lord's face.

Rose gawks. "What?"

"You gonna start worshippin' me?" he repeats. "Amazing alien, me. Saved your planet -- your species -- more times than you've had hot dinners. An' by _my_ technological standards, you're both primitives -- yeah, even you, Captain." He leans back against the TARDIS console and crosses his arms. "Don't bother bringin' flowers." The tone is matter-of-fact, his face still unsmiling. He remains motionless as a granite statue, except for those cool blue eyes darting back and forth between his two companions.

Those eyes, Jack knows, can drill into you with the precision of surgical lasers. Right now, they are merely scanning the surface. Watching. Waiting. A voice in the back of his head whispers, _What kind of god wears jeans and a leather jacket?_ And the same voice answers, _A dangerous one. A sexy one. _Jack imagines dropping to his knees in front of that dark, expressionless figure. A shiver runs through him, and he isn't sure if it's from fear or desire.

The tip of Rose's tongue flicks across her upper lip. "'S not funny, Doctor."

He keeps his gaze on her for ten interminable seconds. Rose seems to be holding her breath, and Jack resists an irrational urge to step between her and the Time Lord. _The Doctor would never hurt Rose. Never._

"Didn't mean it t' be funny," the Doctor says. "I reckon the best time would be in the 14th century. Black Death all over Europe, Papacy bein' disputed, half a dozen new empires settin' up shop. Not much communication between continents. Makes it easier."

Rose seems speechless. Jack decides it's time to jump in. "Easier for what, Doctor?"

The Doctor gives him Annoying Smile #6: _You're-not-usually-this-much-of-a-moron_. "Easier to take over the Earth."

Jack's first impulse is to say, "You can't do that," but he bites it back, because he's pretty sure that the Doctor _can_ do that if he wants to. The other Time Lords aren't around to stop him. The Time Agency might try, but they wouldn't have a chance.

The Doctor continues his monologue. "Cure diseases, startin' with the plague. Get rid of hunger. Stop the wars. You humans are such a violent species," he muses aloud. "Amazin' how many of each other you manage t' kill, even without advanced weapons."

Rose looks as though she's been hit over the head with a brick. "What about paradoxes? Reapers?"

The Doctor smiles approvingly at her. Good student. "Reapers can be avoided with a bit o' plannin' by someone who knows what he's about. Not a problem."

"It's wrong!"

"Wrong? Savin' lives? Endin' misery? Isn't that what a god is s'posed to do?"

Jack finds himself itching to punch the smug SOB, even though he's figured out the Time Lord's game.

And so has Rose. Even before she speaks, he can see understanding, relief, and a hint of anger in her eyes. "Yeah. 'Cept it would take away their freedom. Turn them into puppets. An' you wouldn't do that." She smiles crookedly. "Y'know, Doctor, you can be a right bastard sometimes."

He smiles back at her, and the grim stone figure is once again living, breathing flesh. "S'pose I can be, yeah."

She hesitates. "Didn't mess things up too badly, did I?"

"Nah. This is jus' a tiny village, isolated. Rest of the planet won't even know that anythin' happened. Couple of centuries from now, some researcher will write a paper on myths of the Gada River Valley, an' put us in a footnote."

Jack adopts the dry tones of his least favourite lecturer at the Time Academy. "According to an ancient legend, the inhabitants of the Skagada region were saved from sky-dwelling demons by three supernatural visitors -- two handsome gods and a goddess with a charming smudge on her nose. This tale is clearly an allegory for-- hey!" Reflexively, he catches the bulbous yellow fruit that Rose chucks at his head.

"All right, you two," the Doctor chides. "Playtime's over. Captain, if you're ready to do something useful for a change..." He gestures at the open panel on the TARDIS console.

"So I'm _not_ a ham-fisted idiot?"

"We'll see," the Time Lord grumbles.

Four hours and two cups of tea later, Rose returns to the control room, ready to explode with restlessness. "Doctor, I'm going outside. Need to stretch my legs for a bit, yeah?" She gives him her best smile. "I promise not to do any miracles."

The Doctor eyes her, then seems to decide that she can't get into too much trouble. "Don't go far."

"Jus' to the river." She wouldn't mind company, but she knows that the Doctor won't budge. Jack gives her a distracted smile before disappearing beneath the console. Right now, the only female that can hold their attention is the TARDIS. _Blokes!_

It's late morning, and most of the Skagadans are in the fields. The few who remain in the village bow respectfully when they see Rose emerge from the TARDIS, but don't approach her. When she reaches the river bank, no one is in sight. She finds a grassy spot just beneath a small ridge topped with sprawling bushes. At this point in its descent from the mountains, the Gada is only seven metres across, and it still skips and dances over a rock-strewn course, singing erratically to itself like a playful child.

The sounds of the river are soothing. Rose isn't sleepy, but she stares at nothing in particular, her thoughts drifting like leaves in the water. She thinks about the invasion; how well they worked together. They usually work well together, but lately it appears that they're getting even better. When did it change? Not all that long ago, Rose reckons. Five or six days ago, when she came back from that weekend in London. While she'd been at the hen party for Shireen's cousin, the blokes were on some space station in the 32nd century, shopping for spare parts for the TARDIS.

She noticed the difference first in Jack. He's quieter, Jack. No, that isn't exactly it. He still chats, jokes, laughs, tells outrageous stories about past adventures, but part of him seems to be somewhere else. When she asked, he said "I'm fine, nothing's wrong, don't worry."

Something happened while Rose was away, and she doesn't know all the answers yet. Jack's confessed to "a little run-in" with some Time Agents.

"_I wasn't hurt. The Doctor wasn't hurt. We didn't even have to hurt the bad guys, okay? The Doctor talked tough, and then he did some jiggery-pokery with one of his gadgets, and we ran for the TARDIS. He might even have scared them enough to stop looking for me. So, stop worrying, Rose. Smile for me." _And he had gently stroked the corner of her mouth with his thumb, encouraging it to curve upwards.

She had smiled -- always easy to smile at Jack -- but she hasn't stop wondering. There are other changes in him. He seems more… confident? No, that's silly. No one is as self-confident as Captain Jack Harkness. Happier, maybe. An' he's getting on better with the Doctor. Oh, they still snipe at each other, toss around insults, and challenge each other's skill and knowledge, but that's just a bloke thing.

There are changes in the Doctor, too. Harder to see, 'cos he keeps so much of himself hidden, but she can tell. He's more comfortable with Jack around. She knows he trusts Jack, has done for a couple of months, but something's different, so she'd tried asking him what happened.

"_Y'should ask the Captain."_

"_He didn't have much to say."_

"_Not much to tell. Ran into a pair of Time Agents who recognised the Captain. They wanted to take 'im back to headquarters. Didn't want me."_

"_Prob'ly knew how much trouble you'd be. What happened?"_

"_I had a word, told 'em to leave our Jack alone, an' we ran for it. No fuss, no muss."_

"_Why do I think there's something you're not telling me, Doctor?"_

"_Rose Tyler." He said her name with a sigh, but his eyes were amused. "You're much too young to be so suspicious."_

"_I learnt from the best."_

"_Always the best, me. But there's nothin' to fret about. Nobody got even a scratch. We talked, I dazzled 'em with science, and we were off. End of story."_

She'd felt reassured, but still perplexed. Something the Doctor said. It wasn't until she was falling asleep that the oddity struck her. _Since when does the Doctor say "our Jack"?_ Rose had meant to ask about it in the morning, but that was the morning they landed on Xoralia. Now, on the sun-warmed grass, with the sing-song of the river in her ears, she has time to wonder about this puzzle.

Rose doesn't hear the oncoming footsteps until their owner is standing barely a metre away.


	2. Changes Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the woman who gave Jack the basket of fruit. She isn't carrying a basket now, and her eyes widen when she notices Rose sprawled on the grass. "Gracious Lady! Forgive me, I did not mean to intrude."

It's the woman who gave Jack the basket of fruit. She isn't carrying a basket now, and her eyes widen when she notices Rose sprawled on the grass. "Gracious Lady! Forgive me, I did not mean to intrude."

"Yes! I mean, no. 'S no bother. Please, sit." Rose waves a hand at the patch of grass beside her. She tries to shift into a more graceful pose without being too obvious about it. "I'm Rose."

The woman drops to her knees, hesitates, then leans sideways into a sitting position. She bobs her head. "The Lady of Flowers, yes. And the Warrior, and the Healer. The priests told us."

_Is the TARDIS's translation a bit off? Maybe they decided that 'Rose, Captain Jack, an' the Doctor' isn't formal enough for gods._ "And you are--?"

"Me, Gracious Lady? I'm Efha. Efha n'Ruelhan."

"H'llo, Efha." Rose searches for something to say. She isn't usually tongue-tied, but she's not used to her words being so important. Efha is looking at her like she's expecting to hear the Queen's Christmas Speech, the winning Lotto numbers, and the secret of the last Harry Potter book, all rolled into one. "Umm... your daughter is very pretty." For the next three minutes, Rose doesn't have to say a single word, because she's pushed the "proud mum" button, and Efha is happy to do all the talking.

After that, the conversation goes more smoothly. Rose asks Efha about her family, about village life, and about the surrounding region. The Xoralian woman answers easily, evidently not finding it odd that a goddess should want to know about these things. Eventually, she dares to ask a question of her own. "Lady Rose, may I ask... do you have children?"

"Me??" She's so gobsmacked at the idea that Efha begins to gabble an apology for offending the Gracious Lady. "Efha, it's okay. You jus' surprised me, that's all. Nah, I don't have any kids. Not ready for that yet."

Efha nods. "I'm sure the All-Holy will bless you with many children someday. With two such strong husbands--"

"With _what_?" Rose can hear her voice squeaking like a rusty door on the second word.

"Two strong husbands." Efha looks puzzled and just a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Lady Rose -- do you have others? The priests didn't say, and I only saw the two..."

"They... I... no." Rose blinks. This is not the first planet where she's been mistaken for the wife (daughter, sister, concubine) of one of her companions, depending on the local culture. "Is that the custom here? For a woman t'have more than one husband?"

Efha laughs as though she thinks Rose is teasing her. "Oh no, Lady Rose. One husband, one wife. But the rules are different for gods, of course. Sitra the Wise had two husbands, and Gebhni the Hunter-Lord married the three daughters of Esken. So I thought--"

_I can't do this. I can't keep on lying to her._ "Efha, the Doctor an' Captain Jack aren't my husbands. An' we're not gods. Really, we're not." Rose runs a fingernail across the back of her left hand -- just enough to tear the skin without drawing blood. "We can be hurt. We get tired and sick, an' we need to eat. We make mistakes-- we're not perfect."

For a moment, she wonders if the TARDIS has stopped translating, because Efha is looking at her like she's talking gibberish. When the Xoralian woman speaks, her voice is soft and slow. "The gods are not perfect, Lady Rose. Only the All-Holy is perfect."

"The All-Holy?"

"The All-Holy made the world and all that dwell in it, and They made the gods to care for Their world. They made some out of starlight, some out of wind, and some out of the hearts of mountains. They made other gods from mortal flesh, to be Their champions and defend Their world from evil." Efha smiles at her. It is a gentle smile; a mother's smile. "I think you must be a very young god, Lady Rose. The All-Holy gave you valour and kindness, but if you look into your heart, you will also find wisdom. Trust it, as you trust Their other gifts." She rises to her feet in one smooth movement and bows low. "Your pardon, Lady. My children will be wanting their supper."

*****

They work in easy silence, broken only by the occasional "pass the spanner" or "jus' a bit more to the right". Jack can chatter like a parrot sometimes, but he knows when to shut up and work. _One of my better ideas, keepin' this one._ He hasn't always had a choice in who comes aboard the TARDIS -- Sarah Jane and Zoe had been stowaways; Leela, a one-woman invasion force; Turlough, a lying sneak; and even Romana had been foisted on him by the White Guardian -- but no one _stays_ without his consent.

The Doctor is glad that he didn't follow his initial impulse and dump the Captain on the first convenient planet. He's good with his hands -- _Makes a nice change to have some help with repairs. _He takes orders without too much backtalk. He's good in tight and dangerous places. The Doctor is even willing to overlook Jack's excessive fondness for guns, because the lad's top priority is protecting Rose.

_He looked ready to step in this afternoon, when I was giving Rose what-for. Clever enough t'see it wasn't needed, but he was ready._

As if he knows what the Doctor's thinking, Jack turns to face him. "All those things you said about taking over Earth..."

"Yeah?"

"You couldn't."

"Thought we already covered that, Jack."

"Nah. Rose said you _wouldn't_, and she was right. I'm saying you _couldn't._"

"How do you figure that, Captain?" He's genuinely curious.

"You talk about yourself more than you think you do, Doctor." Jack taps the forefinger of one hand against the open palm of the other, like he's ticking items off a list. "Nero. Marco Polo. The Trojan War. Charles Dickens. French Revolution. King John. Albert Einstein. At least half a dozen attempted alien invasions -- I could go on, and that's just the stuff I know about."

"An' your point is?"

"You like Earth, Doctor. You spend a lot of time there; get involved with a lot of crucial people, key events. If you start changing history in the 14th century, you're going to run smack dab into your own timeline. That's a dangerous thing to do, even for a Time Lord."

_Especially for a Time Lord. _Jack knows a fair bit about Time Lords, but he doesn't know about regeneration. He doesn't know that the Doctor has the equivalent of _nine _timelines overlapping and intertwining in ways that no human language can describe. _Still, he's a sharp lad to figure out as much as he has done. _"There are other planets," the Doctor suggests. It's a compliment wrapped in a red herring. He's admitting that Jack is right about Earth, while offering him a distraction.

"There are other planets," Jack agrees. "And you wouldn't even be tempted."

"Playing god isn't all it's cracked up to be," he says, and for a dizzying moment he can smell smoke, feel a scream forcing its way out of his scorched, raw throat. It distracts him from the present just long enough to make him stupid, because he hears himself saying, "You ever been tempted to give it a try?" He sees the indignation flaring in Jack's eyes. "_Tempted_, Captain. You wouldn't have been the first Time Agent to think of it." _An' there've been a few who tried it._

"Too much work and responsibility," Jack says casually, as if he's describing a clerical position rather than godhood. His posture is relaxed, his voice and face are calm, but there are a dozen signs that can be read by someone who knows him well enough -- a tightened muscle, a slight change in position.

The Doctor catches the human's gaze, holds it. "_I_ know what a lazy sod you are," he says, with just the faintest emphasis on the first word.

Jack's body signals the release of tension. "Sloth has always been one of my favourite sins."

He snorts. "Don't have t' ask what the most favourite one is, do I?"

"I keep offering to demonstrate, Doctor."

"Not 'til I get that drink." The banter has become so automatic that he's scarcely aware of the words. "No pubs hereabouts."

"No, but there are other planets," Jack reminds him, and there's a question beneath the statement. _Will you ever?_

"There are, yeah." _Sometimes, I'm tempted._ "Where's Rose got to?" _I'll let myself burn before hurting her._

"She'll be back soon." _I love her, too_.

"Right. Now, if you've finished gabbing, Captain, let's get back to work. Pass the circuit welder."

Jack throws an exaggerated salute. "Yessir!"

How long has she been sitting here, watching the river flow? More than long enough, judging from the position of the sun. Time to be heading back to the TARDIS. She jumps to her feet and sprints to the top of the slope. There are more people in the village now. Smoke rises from cook-fires. A teenage girl stumbles by, water sloshing from the two full buckets she carries. A little boy leads an animal on a rope. It looks like a cross between a pig and a goat, and it's taller than he is, but it follows its young master docilely.

_A normal day. Today's just another normal day for them. _Rose wonders what this place would look like now if the TARDIS hadn't landed here yesterday. Burnt ruins and dead bodies? Or wind sighing through empty huts, their inhabitants en route to some alien slave-market? She hadn't thought to ask the Doctor what the G'naduns wanted. Something evil, she's sure of that. Efha's clear voice echoes in her mind. _"They made other gods from mortal flesh, to be Their champions and defend Their world from evil."_

She almost laughs. Even if the Xoralian idea of a god is more like an angel, Rose can't think of herself that way. In the Junior School Christmas Pageant, she'd rebelled, begging to be given any other role -- and hadn't _that_ led to trouble? (She never meant to kick Davy Thompson in the arse; she'd only been using her shepherd's crook to pole vault, and the landing hadn't gone quite right.)

_No halo for me._ She can't imagine the Doctor with one, either. _Doesn't exactly go with black leather and a jumper._ Jack is handsome enough, but there's too much of the devil in his smile. She remembers the look he gave her yesterday, just before he bit into the fruit. The look said, clear as anything, _I'd rather be nibbling on you_.

Rose had been tempted, and not for the first time. She knows he fancies her, has known it since they met. _Not exactly a secret._ Jack is the biggest flirt in the universe, but he'll never take things beyond flirting unless she gives him a clear go-ahead signal. And she can't do that, on account of the Doctor.

The Doctor. She know he loves her -- but there are all sorts of love. Does he fancy her? Sometimes she thinks he does, and sometimes she thinks she's fooling herself. Rose is only sure of one thing: if she gets involved with Jack, she'll hurt the Doctor.

_'Sides, how long would it be before Jack started feeling like second best? Can't do that to him. Bad enough that I hurt Mickey..._

"Oi! Watch where you're goin', sweetie!" Quick relexes save her from a collision with another pig-goat. Its young keeper squeaks something that might be an apology, and hurries away. _Wouldn't _that _make a fine legend? The Lady of Flowers helped defeat a horde of sky-demons, but the following day she was run over by a fugitive from a petting zoo._

The TARDIS is within sight. _Time to see what my blokes have been up to._ Rose stops abruptly. _My blokes?_ She usually thinks of them as "the blokes". _One small word -- jus' two letters an' it completely changes the meaning. My blokes. I love both of them._

What surprises her is how much it doesn't surprise her. _Have I changed_ _that much?_ She's not the same Rose Tyler who ran through the basement of Henrik's, hand in hand with a stranger. Since then, she's lived a life that other Rose could never have imagined. Time travel, alien planets, fantastic adventures. _Who wouldn't be changed by all that?_

No. That's not quite right. Seeing the Earth burn up, meeting Charles Dickens and killer mannequins and gas-mask zombies -- yeah, those experiences opened her eyes and changed her attitudes. _But not my heart_.

There's a two-foot-high section of tree stump nearby. This morning, a villager was using its flat top as a worktable to punch holes in leather straps. The stump is abandoned now. Rose plops down on it, elbows on her knees. _My blokes. _The Doctor and Jack. So different to each other on the surface, so much alike where it matters.

A fragment of conversation drifts through her mind. "_I trust him 'cos he's like you..." _She'd trusted both men as soon as she'd met them, in spite of -- because of? -- the secrets they hid. _Saving someone's life makes a great first impression. Lots better than small talk in a pub. "Bloke-wise, that's_ _right up there with flossing."_

Rose trusts them with the little things, too, and that can be scarier than jumping out of a ventilation shaft. Sharing silly worries and embarrassing memories... she'd done that once with Jimmy Stone, told him about something stupid she'd done as a kid. _I trusted him 'cos I thought I loved him._ _No. I knew that I was _supposed _to trust him, so I fooled myself into believing I did._ Rose grimaces at the memory. Jimmy had used her confession as a weapon against her the next time they had a row. The Doctor would never do that, nor Jack. Not that the three of them don't have rows, but they don't fight dirty.

The eddies and currents of village life are still swirling around her, but not too closely. There's a sort of invisible breakwater around her, a three-metre circle where no one enters. Rose isn't paying much mind to the people and animals just outside the circle. A movement further off catches her eye: it's the TARDIS door opening.

The Doctor emerges, followed closely by Captain Jack. Their easy stride tells Rose that no emergency popped up while she was out. As they approach, she studies them, her two blokes. Strong, confident, clever. The Doctor says something to Jack, and the Captain replies. They're still too far away for Rose to make out the words, but she can see the identical grins breaking out and hear the rumble of masculine laughter.

And just like that, the answer that eluded her by the riverside pops into place. Whatever happened while she was in London -- and she'll likely never get the full story -- it brought her blokes closer together. The trust between them is stronger, more instinctive. That's the change she's been sensing in all of them.

As they cross the invisible circle surrounding her, Rose sees two sets of blue eyes fixed on her, curiosity mixed with mild concern.

"Did'ya manage to get yourself lost?"

"You okay, Rose?"

She stands up. "Fine. Jus' resting a bit. Doing miracles all day takes it out of a girl." She laughs at their identical looks of dismay. "Gits. I'm only joking. Let's go inside, yeah?"

She slips between the two men, and wraps an arm around each waist. No need to worry about shocking the locals. _"The rules are different for gods," _Efha whispers in her head. The Doctor's arm settles across her shoulders from one direction, and Jack's from the other. They are intertwined like a complicated braid. Walking together so closely makes them stumble at first, but they don't fall, and after a few steps, they find their rhythm. It's rather like dancing, actually.

\--- THE END --


End file.
